24/6: A Jewish Theater Company Presents LOOKING THROUGH GLASS

24/6: A Jewish Theater Company, New York's first ensemble dedicated to Sabbath-observant artists, will present Ken Kaissar's brand new play Looking Through Glass, an original commission by 24/6, developed in collaboration with the playwright. This production celebrates 24/6's 7th Anniversary.

After going against the wishes of her heart and marrying a man just to please her parents, Leah is possessed by the soul of her true love. Can an exorcism untangle their souls, or will they be forever entwined for the rest of eternity? A haunting and romantic modern-day rendition of the Jewish classic The Dybbuk by S. Ansky, that reminds us that love is a destiny that can't be escaped.

Looking Through Glass culminates 24/6's 3 ½ yearlong "Dybbuk Project" which commenced in Summer 2014 with the ensemble reading versions of The Dybbuk, alongside biographical material on Ansky, and exploring the artistic legacy of the play since its writing. Ansky's The Dybbuk was the culmination of a two year ethnographic expedition researching Jewish life in the Russian Pale of Settlement. As 24/6 commenced working on the project, it realized that many people don't know The Dybbuk, and decided to share the story through Bruce Myers' beautiful adaptation A Dybbuk for Two People which 24/6 staged at JCC Manhattan in December 2014. Looking Through Glass builds upon this work and is our own response to the play, examining how The Dybbuk - a seminal work in the history of Jewish performance - and Ansky's life and legacy speak to us in tumultuous 2017 America. This project included research at YIVO and the NYPL for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, and workshops by the company.

Looking Through Glass is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. LMCC.net

Looking Through Glass features: Judy Ammar (Leah), Avi Soroka (Ansky/Rabbi), David Hilfstein (Jacob), Vidal Loew (Shmuel), Bracha Lieberman (Miriam).

About the Artists

KEN KAISSAR (Playwright) Ken Kaissar's plays have been performed or developed by Philadelphia Theatre Company, Bristol Riverside Theatre, Delaware Theatre Company, Mildred's Umbrella, Fusion Theatre Company, Urban Stages, Passage Theatre and 24/6: A Jewish Theater Company. His ten-minute play CEASEFIRE (written in response to Israel's war with Hezbollah in 2006) was an official selection in the 2012 New Works Festival at the Fusion Theatre Company in Albuquerque, and the 2015 ReOrient Festival at Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco. His play THE VICTIMS OR WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO ABOUT IT was a runner-up for the 2009 Princess Grace Award and was honored by Middle East America: A National New Plays Initiative, a partnership of Golden Thread Productions, Lark Play Development Center, Silk Road Rising. His other plays include A MODEST SUGGESTION, THE MAN STANLEY and NUDE STUDY. He holds a BFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University. He teaches playwriting and theatre history at Rider University and Stockton University.

YONI OPPENHEIM (Director, 24/6 Artistic Director) was selected as one of The Jewish Week's "36 Under 36" in recognition of 24/6's innovative work. For 24/6, he directed A Dybbuk for Two People by Bruce Myers; Ken Kaissar's plays If Not Now (Nuyorican); Cleaning Out the Chametz and The Victims...; Passover Plays; conceived and directed Uncle Vanya (JCC, NYU, MTC Studios); Sabbath Variations (LimmudPhilly); SHINSAI; adapted/directed A Doll House (The Tank); directed an in-development workshop of Miryam Madrigal's Marrying In at the Dramatists Guild Baltimore, and wrote the book and lyrics for Nittel Nacht. Yoni served as researcher and production dramaturg to playwright Doug Wright on the world premiere of Posterity off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company. Most recently, he served as dramaturg to Hamish Linklater on Paris, Actors directed by Leigh Silverman at New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theater's Reading Festival. Yoni's translation of At Night's End by Israeli playwright Motti Lerner received its first production at Knox College, following workshops at Israeli Stage in Boston and at The Lark Playwrights Center in New York. He recently dramaturged the Jewish Plays Project winner Margot Connolly's Belfast Kind workshop at the 14th Street Y. He dramaturged He Who Laughs by Ian Cohen for JCC Theaterworks in New Haven; and was the Theater Faculty for Brandeis University's BIMA Summer Arts Institute. He was a 2012 and 2013 NEA/NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs SPARC (Seniors Partnering with Artists Citywide) Grantee. During his 2012 SPARC Residency he created Home of the Brave: WWII Experiences in the Military and on the Homefront, based on oral histories of senior citizens at the Riverdale Y, where he led "Improv for Seniors" for 6 years. In May 2013, he had the opportunity to assist Yossi Yzraely, one of the fathers of contemporary Jewish theater, on his production Bratslav-Beethoven-Bratslav. He is a recipient of the John Dana Archbold Fellowship at the University of Oslo; the Dorot Fellowship in Israel; and the Spielberg Fellowship in Jewish Theater Education. Yoni is the associate editor of the Foundation for Jewish Culture's catalog "Plays of Jewish Interest," has written about the Origins of Jewish Theater, and has been the artistic consultant to both the Drisha Arts Fellowship and the inaugural JOFA Dinner/Exhibition "Putting Women Back in the Picture." BFA in Drama: NYU-Tisch/Playwrights Horizons Theater School; M. Phil in Ibsen Studies: University of Oslo. Member: Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab.

AVI SOROKA (Actor, 24/6 Co-Founder) has worked as an Equity Stage Manager, as well as an actor and director, in NYC and around the US for over 10 years. For 24/6 he has appeared in Sabbath Variations: The Splendor of Space (LimmudPhilly); as Torvald in A Doll House (The Tank); Bassee in Ken Kaissar's The Victims, Or What Do You Want Me to Do About It?; Vanya in Uncle Vanya, for which he also wrote a new translation; Abie in Chai Hecht's Freer; Aaron in excerpts from August Strindberg's Through Deserts to Ancestral Lands (Moses); and Tony in Notes on Akiba by Tony Kushner. Directing credits for 24/6 include Nittel Nacht: a short musical, a reading of Brooklyn Boy by Donald Margulies, and Tongue Play. Some of his career highlights have been with The Arizona Jewish Theater Company, Genesis Rep, Mimum Productions, Plain Clothes Performance Group, The Yeshiva College Dramatics Society, Queens College, American Playwrights Theatre, The Rhetorical Question Players and Black Box Entertainment and working as Company Manager for Daniel Levin's critically acclaimed Hee-Haw: It's A Wonderful Li e, which was chosen as a Critics Pick by the New York Times for the 2009 holiday season. Most recently, Avi served as Associate Producer for the new Shwekey music video "I Can Be" (Mendy Pellin Productions).

JUDY AMMAR (Leah) is a NYC based actor who has worked in various independent film, video, voice and theater projects in New York, Toronto and Jerusalem. Judy has most recently starred as the lead role in her first feature film, The Gift, an all women's production, produced by non-profit agency, Mekimi. Judy is currently a member of 24/6: A Jewish Theatre Company and has performed in numerous plays, readings and improv shows across the city. She was trained at York University's acting conservatory and at the Professional Actors Lab, both located in Toronto. When Judy is not acting, she spends much of her time working as a renal social worker.

DAVID HILFSTEIN (Jacob) is a New York based actor. Theater Credits include: Ragtime (Tateh), Life is a Dream (Astolfo), Insurrection: Holding History (Hammett), Fiddler on the Roof (Perchick) *TANYS Award* Off Broadway: The Fantasy Party (Hollywood), The Mission (Joe Conte), Much Ado About Nothing (Claudio), Other International credits: Fat Pig (Tom), The Miracle Worker (James Keller), Arsenic! The Musical (Mortimer Brewster), Rent 'Mark Cohen' Israeli Premiere, Jerusalem. Film: Iranian Feature "Roxana", Shorts; Legit, Family First. TV: David can currently be seen on Marvel The Defenders (NETFLIX) and soon to be released pilot "A Beautiful Distraction" as a recurring character Hayden. Guest Star and Co-Star roles on the new crime drama series Street Justice:The Bronx "Detective Cohen", Six Degrees of Murder "D.A Ebrahim Baytieh". This past July, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at The Brightside Film Festival in NJ for his role as "Brian Figarello" in the short film, Legit. David is a proud dual American/ Israeli citizen and is honored to be working with 24/6: A Jewish Theater Company! davidhilfstein.com

VIDAL LOEW (Shmuel) Vidal is a multi-disciplinary performer, who has built his artistic path in both the music and the acting world. Born and raised in Paris, France, he made his journey in the US since 2012 and obtained his permanent resident status after he completed a Jazz school program at The Collective School of Music. Vidal is currently working on his self-produced debut album as a singer and songwriter.

BRACHA LIEBERMAN (Miriam) studied acting at Circle in the Square and HB Studios. She has played leading and supporting roles in community theater productions such as The Dybbuk, The Matchmaker, Spoon River Anthology, American Dream and Working. She is a social worker, who in her spare time is involved in the Carlebach Shul, community projects, on board of People's Voice Cafe and sings with the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus. She likes spending time with friends, music, theater, cafes and nature.

About 24/6: A Jewish Theater Company

24/6: A JEWISH THEATER COMPANY, founded in 2010, is a home for professional Sabbath-observant artists in New York. 24/6 is committed to cultivating innovative theater grounded in a rigorous engagement with Jewish tradition, believing that the performing arts play a critical role in the vitality of American Jewish life. 24/6 was featured on the PBS/WNET Channel 13's Theater Talk. Past productions: A Dybbuk for Two People, If Not Now by Ken Kaissar, an original translation and adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, staged for the Jewish arbor day of Tu Bishvat as a ritual seder and invited to Limmud NY 2015; a performance of Passover Plays an evening of short works for the holiday, including Tony Kushner's Notes on Akiba, two original works by company members Ken Kaissar and Chai Hecht, and an excerpt of August Strindberg's rarely done play Through Deserts to Ancestral Lands (Moses). The company debuted with the original piece Sabbath Variations: The Splendor of Space, a collection of short plays based on interpretations of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's texts. Sabbath Variations made its international debut several months later as part of the Stage One English Language Play Festival in Israel and its regional debut at LimmudPhilly in 2012. In its first year, 24/6 also went on to produce a modern-day Purim-time adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's classic A Doll House, which was reviewed to critical acclaim in the New York Post, The Jewish Week, and Ibsen News and Comment. The Sixth Street Synagogue invited 24/6 to be the theater company in residence for the 2011-2012 season, featuring a successful reading series that included Brooklyn Boy by Donald Margulies, Searching for Eden: The Diaries of Adam and Eve by James Still, and The Victims: Or What Do You Want Me To Do About It? written by company member Ken Kaissar. On its first anniversary, 24/6 was commissioned to write and perform a short musical for John Zorn presents: Nittle Nacht (Xmas Eve) Radical Jewish Culture Blowout. 24/6 continues to grow and participate in broader cultural conversation. It collaborated with Theater Communications Group (TCG) for SHINSAI: Theaters for Japan, a national theater benefit for the 2010 earthquake victims in Japan. To mark the 70th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, 24/6 partnered with New Jersey Repertory Company for their staged reading of the Richard Rodgers Award-winning musical To Paint the Earth by Jonathan Portera and Daniel F. Levin. 24/6 continues to expand its reach through the development of a children's theater program including an interactive The Purim Story written and directed by Stacy Horowitz. It has received seed funding from the Dorot Foundation to create a show for Jewish middle-school students addressing bullying and peer harassment. 24/6 is a recipient of a 2017 Creative Engagement Grant from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts. Last year 24/6 incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit.

Led by Yoni Oppenheim, 24/6: A Jewish Theater Company is the first of its kind: a professional Jewish theater company and an artistic home for professional Sabbath-observant Jewish artists. It aims to provide a space for these artists to create cutting-edge, contemporary work, featuring a talented ensemble of actors, writers, directors, dancers, and puppeteers. 24/6: A Jewish Theater Company was founded by Avi Soroka, Jesse Freedman and Yoni Oppenheim.

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